Native Peoples, Politics, and Society in Contemporary Paraguay: Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Abstract

This new book on Paraguay brings to students and scholars a multidisciplinary approach rarely seen or equaled. This collective work includes a chronology with more than 35 dates that covers the period from 1981 to 2020. An introduction by Barbara A. Ganson selects important aspects of Paraguayan history, from the beginnings of the colony until the twenty-first century. While the first three chapters are anthropological essays, the last three essays take a political and economic approach, making this volume well balanced.In the first chapter, René D. Harder Horst immerses us in the struggles of Paraguay's Indigenous peoples from the second half of the twentieth century until the advent of the 1992 constitution. Horst addresses the sufferings of and difficulties faced by the country's Indigenous peoples and also takes into account the different political strategies of a good number of Indigenous leaders of the country. This chapter is especially striking because Horst quotes remarkable speeches from the Indigenous leaders and places them as the main actors in Indigenous struggles and revolts in Paraguay at the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of the democratic transition.In the second chapter, Richard K. Reed focuses on the Guaraní populations of Paraguay. Reed masterfully blends his own experience as an anthropologist and researcher among the Guaraní with the life trajectories of the people whom he has met throughout his career. This chapter retraces the path of Lali-puku, a young Guaraní woman who was forced to migrate from Itanaramí in the middle of the Atlantic Forest to Cerro Potý, a huge open-air dump in the capital. This chapter reflects on the ecocidal processes of development in Paraguay between 1980 and 2000 and on the impact of political measures on the Indigenous populations forced to adapt, as best they could, to the capital's dumps after living in the forest.In the third chapter, Paola Canova reports on forced displacements of Ayoreo Indigenous people in northern Paraguay. Canova contextualizes the settlement of the Ayoreo in the city of Filadelfia and the first contact with the Mennonites in 1930. Canova reveals how these relations are deeply colonial and sometimes constitute modern slavery. However, Canova's description of the Ayoreo's living conditions is not miserabilist. On the contrary, Canova depicts the Ayoreo as transgressive actors who, through various strategies, succeed in imposing their presence in Filadelfia and conquering urban spaces, no matter how small or poorly endowed.The fourth chapter, by Sarah Patricia Cerna Villagra, Sara Mabel Villalba Portillo, Eduardo Tamayo Belda, and Roque Mereles Pintos, follows the political evolution of Paraguay through the hegemony of the National Republican Association–Colorado Party between 1954 and 2019. The authors study the origins of one of the longest dictatorships in Latin America, linking Alfredo Stroessner's rule directly with foreign interests, especially those of the United States. The brilliant examination of the political situation in post-1950 Paraguay shows that the establishment and the end of this dictatorial regime, both achieved by coups, may have been orchestrated from Washington. The authors conclude by looking at the parliamentary coup that deposed President Fernando Lugo in 2012 and its consequences for political life in Paraguay today: a strengthening of the Colorado Party with the country's two most recent (and controversial) presidents, Horacio Cartes and Mario Abdo Benítez.In the fifth chapter, Brian Turner questions women's current political representation in Paraguay. Turner uses multiple data and statistics to give a picture of women's participation in different political spaces, including the National Congress and national, regional, and local elections. This chapter, supplemented by graphs and tables, points out the great difficulty of establishing parity between men and women in the contemporary political life of Paraguay, where noncompliance complicates the structural changes to Paraguayan society needed to improve women's daily lives.The book closes with Melissa H. Birch's study of the contemporary Paraguayan economy, metamorphosed by the first stage of the Itaipu dam between 1973 (when the treaty was signed) and 1981 (when construction began). Birch analyzes the relationship of Paraguay with Mercosur, whose emergence in 1991 marked economically the country's democratic transition. The author evokes the Paraguayan government's doubts about Mercosur's intervention in the national economy, hostile to smuggling practices on the borders with Brazil and Argentina. Birch mentions how the integration of this new market helped make Paraguay the fourth largest soybean exporter in the world. Birch describes an economy deeply marked by inequality, in which wealth redistribution is almost nonexistent. However, Birch states that Paraguay, despite being Mercosur's most fragile economy, will benefit from opening to markets outside Latin America.This book is an ambitious project, and the result is quite stimulating for the scientific quality of each chapter and the book's clear and precise language, multidisciplinary approach, and thematic coherence. The suffering and struggle of the Indigenous populations, the dictatorship of Stroessner, the hydroelectric dams, and the sociopolitical and economic dependence on the United States and Brazil are major themes that will offer a wide perspective allowing the reader to apprehend contemporary Paraguay and its region.